Polymetallic Complexes: Modelling Heterogeneous Catalysis in Solution

工业规模的化学品生产通常涉及使用催化剂，因为它使该化学品的生产效率更高，因此更具成本效益。化学工业通常更喜欢这些催化剂是多相的（例如液体反应中的固体催化剂），因为一旦反应完成，这些催化剂很容易从产物中分离出来。为了开发和改进这些催化剂，重要的是要深入了解它们是如何工作的，以便了解对其反应性至关重要的特征。对于非均相催化剂来说，实现这一目标是一项重大挑战，因为通常很难确定催化剂的活性形式。这里提出的研究旨在通过合成含有小簇金属原子的可溶性化合物来弥补这一差距，这些化合物将用于模拟非均相催化剂并研究它们可用于的特定反应。这种方法使我们能够利用许多高灵敏度的基于溶液的技术，这些技术由于其固有的不溶性而通常无法用于多相催化剂，并获得对催化剂开发至关重要的全面理解。在这些初步研究中，我们将重点关注将CO和CO2转化为更有价值的资源。化学工业目前严重依赖来自日益枯竭的化石燃料储备的原料。建立来自丰富、可持续资源的替代原料来源，如CO和CO2，将促进一个不依赖石油生产的工业。CO和CO2是相对稳定的分子，因此将它们转化为更有价值的化合物是具有挑战性的。然而，金属配合物可以通过削弱它们所含的C-O键来帮助促进这种转化。我们有兴趣利用我们的模型催化剂来研究这些气体的反应性，并最终将我们对催化剂的理解应用于建立经济上可行的转化过程。

The production of chemicals on an industrial scale often involves the use of a catalyst because it makes production of that chemical more efficient and therefore more cost effective. The chemical industry generally prefers these catalysts to be heterogeneous (e.g. a solid catalyst in a liquid reaction) as these are simple to separate from the products once the reaction is complete. To develop and improve upon these catalysts it is important to obtain a deep understanding of how they work in order to understand the features that are vital to their reactivity. Achieving this for heterogeneous catalysts presents a significant challenge because it is often difficult to define the active form (or forms) of the catalyst. The research proposed here aims to bridge this gap by synthesising soluble compounds, containing small clusters of metal atoms, which will be used to model heterogeneous catalysts and study specific reactions that they can be used for. This method allows us to utilise many of the highly sensitive, solution based techniques, which are usually unavailable for heterogeneous catalysts due to their inherent insolubility, and obtain the comprehensive understanding that is crucial for catalyst development. In these initial studies, we will focus on the conversion of CO and CO2 into more valuable resources. The chemical industry currently relies heavily on feedstocks that are derived from depleting fossil fuels reserves. Establishing alternative feedstock sources that are derived from abundant, sustainable resources, such as CO and CO2, would promote an industry that is not reliant on the production of oil. CO and CO2 are relatively stable molecules therefore transforming them into more valuable compounds is challenging. However, it is well established that metal complexes can help to promote this conversion by weakening the C-O bonds they contain. We are interested in utilising our model catalysts to study the reactivity of these gases and ultimately apply our understanding of catalysts to establishing economically viable processes for their conversion.